35 Quotes About Alcoholic Parents

Parents suffering from alcohol addiction can leave a family in turmoil. Here is a look at some of the best quotes about alcoholic parents that are encouraging to finding an eventual path to healing.

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can’t predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

“Alcohol is perfectly consistent in its effects upon man. Drunkenness is merely an exaggeration. A foolish man drunk becomes maudlin; a bloody man, vicious; a coarse man, vulgar.”

“Alcohol ruined me financially and morally, broke my heart and the hearts of too many others. Even though it did this to me and it almost killed me and I haven’t touched a drop of it in seventeen years, sometimes I wonder if I could get away with drinking some now.”

“Alcohol tells truth, but its truth is not normal.”

“Alcoholism is a devastating, potentially fatal disease. The primary symptom of having it is telling everyone–including yourself–that you are not an alcoholic.”

“Alcoholism is a major player in the essential makeup of country music. Country music in and of itself is about relatability to the working class. A lot of working-class people have these problems.”

“Alcoholism is a problem in our country, but it doesn’t mean the government should shut down liquor stores.”

“Alcoholism is a well documented pathological reaction to unresolved grief.”

“Alcoholism is not a symptom of underlying problems. It is an illness in and by itself, producing its own symptoms. Before the onset of the disease alcoholism, the excessive drinking of alcoholic liquor generally is symptomatic of underlying problems.”

“Alcoholism is the disease of more.”

“Alcoholism is the last taboo in British public life.”

“All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and mad.”

“An alcoholic is anyone you don’t like who drinks more than you do.”

“As an alcoholic, you will violate your standards quicker than you can lower them.”

“Because alcohol is encouraged by our culture, we get the idea that it isn’t dangerous. However, alcohol is the most potent and most toxic of the legal psychoactive drugs.”

“Even the fact that alcoholism is now considered by many mental health professionals and employers to be a genuine disability is nothing but an insult to the disabled. Obviously, nobody chooses to become an addict.”

“I consider myself blessed that I haven’t inherited my family’s alcoholism, but that doesn’t mean my children will escape the devastating disease.”

“I don’t say that the drunk man is the real man, and the sober man merely a shell. But you find out something different about people when they’re drunk.”

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”

“I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.”

“I’m such an alcoholic that I go to church just for communion.”

“In my lowest moments, the only reason I didn’t commit suicide was that I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink any more if I was dead.”

“One key symptom of alcoholism is that the individual comes to need a drink for every mood–one to calm down, one to perk up, one to celebrate, one to deal with disappointment, and so on.”

“One of the most important facts to remember about alcoholism is its progression.”

“Talking to a drunk person was like talking to an extremely happy, severely brain-damaged three-year-old.”

“The contrast which exists between the abstemious man and the drunkard is this–the former governs his affairs, but the affairs of the latter govern him.”

“The drink made past happy things contemporary with the present, as if they were still going on, contemporary even with the future as if they were about to happen again.”

“The first step toward recovery from alcoholism is the recognition that a problem exists. Once the problem drinker breaks through denial and admits to having a problem, a range of treatment options become available.”

“The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death.”

“To a drinker the sensation is real and pure and akin to something spiritual: you seek; in the bottle, you find.”

“When there’s a history of alcoholism in families there’s automatically rules set up, and those rules are don’t talk, don’t trust and don’t feel.”

“When you go out with a drunk, you’ll notice how a drunk fills your glass so he can empty his own. As long as you’re drinking, drinking is okay. Two’s company. Drinking is fun. If there’s a bottle, even if your glass isn’t empty, he’ll pour a little in your glass before he fills his own.”

“Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.”

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”

“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.”

Many people have experiences with alcoholic parents. Hearing their stories can help you find an eventual path to healing.